Architecture galore

Aside main stream architecture – use of space

When Marseille 2013 showed in an exhibition the works of LeCorbusier ¹, it was designed not to be just as a contribution to a history of architecture filled with variations of genius and criminal strokes. This is said because Bauhaus architects admitted architecture can be a criminal act, especially if people end up in 'living machines' since the buildings architects have designed impose atrocious living conditions. Janusz Korszak emphasized the importance of a well designed building for even the best teacher cannot correct the mistakes if an architect designed a school badly. Looking at many schools in which children and youth have to spend their times, one can draw but a sad conclusion about these buildings since devoid of nature and light. The same goes for lobbyist who want more skyscrapers to be constructed even though everyone knows any house above tree height goes beyond human proportion and ends up being an unhealthy environment.

So to come back to Le Corbusier, he dreamt of doing such a skyscraper in Algiers but he never succeeded. Instead his dream has been realized at the port of Marseille with a new skyscraper marking the horizon along the harbour front.

Similar plans are under way by an international consortium which wishes to erect on the old airport in Athens the tallest building in the Mediterranean. If that is the measure of success, and CNN praises this as 'one square meter' more, no wonder if cities and their environment go astray for the majority of people forced to live under conditions which exclude both nature and the social question.

The architect Jürgen Eckhardt would admit architects have always claimed they would be concerned about the social question, but they have never fulfilled it.

Le Corbusier did arrange himself under Hitler with the regime. After the war he did some urban projects in India and inspired construction of special housing estates throughout Europe. Apparently some names stay independent of political conditions and in their self sufficiency claim 'greatness'. Not Picasso. He left Spain once Franco ruled and never allowed his Guernica mural to be returned to Spain as long as that dictator was in power.

There was the 'Charter of Athens' signed in 1933 which led among others to Brazilia: an entirely new town and now the capital of Brazil. If Le Corbusier praised light and designed buildings accordingly, it is time to make an appraisal of the building stock and reflect as to what could be a revival of the Mediterranean style of architecture.

Naturally with space having become scarce and yet everyone wishing a view of the sea, over building and loss of nature as a consequence have become a huge problem. Architecture does have a lot to do with a wise use of space. It should make living together possible. However, in Le Corbusier's design of the children's room, they had to move out once they outgrew the dimensions he had allocated for them.

Interestingly enough when Gothic churches were build, the architect and artisans became the first independent voters who derived their voting rights not from property, but from being able to gain an independent income. That altered the voices in need to be heard within the city's municipal council.

Hatto Fischer

Athens May 2014

1Hatto Fischer (2013) Le Corbusier exhibition in J1. Athens: Poiein kai Prattein. http://ecoc.poieinkaiprattein.org/european-capital-of-culture/Marseille-2013/le-corbusier-exhibition-in-j1/

^ Top

« Architecture is (as) a gesture - on 'authenticity' as an architectural criterion by Bart Verschaffel | Adorno und die Aktualität des Funktionalismus »

Ποιειν Και Πραττειν - create and do

Navigation

Architecture galore